Harrington goal preserves tie for Wizards

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Ticker) -- Michael Harrington redeemed
himself with a game-tying goal as the Kansas City Wizards kept
their playoff hopes alive with a 1-1 draw against the Chicago
Fire in front of a sellout crowd on Sunday.

After committing a handball foul in the penalty area which
resulted in the Fire's lone goal in first-half stoppage time,
Harrington evened the score on a right-footer from just outside
the penalty area.

Josh Wolff crossed to Harrington, who made a couple of moves
before knocking the ball into the right side of the net past
goalkeeper Jon Busch in the 48th minute.

"Mikey certainly wanted to make up for that unfortunate
handball," Wolff said. "It was one of those breakout plays and
he did a good job of putting it in the back of the net."

"Credit to that kid," Busch said. "It was a great shot. He put
it a foot inside the post. There's not a lot a keeper can do
about a ball like that."

The goal was the 26th allowed in 27 matches by Busch, who leads
the league with a 0.96 goals-against average. Chicago boasts
the league's stingiest defense and a plus-nine goal differential
- second-best in the MLS.

"I'm pleased with our defense," Busch said. "We played a little
tight early on and dealt with their pressure. We'll look at
some video to see if there's anything we can do differently to
take that goal chance away."

Harrington's second goal of the year moved the Wizards (8-10-9)
into a fifth-place tie in the Eastern Conference standings with
D.C. United (10-14-3).

"I wasn't really thinking, 'I've got to score because of the
handball,'" Harrington said. "But it was a great feeling. I
found myself in the right spot. I had a good feeling at that
point."

"That's the kind of reaction you want to see," Kansas City head
coach Curt Onalfo said. "Basically, we're a point out of
playoff position, but we've been in this situation for 16 weeks.
Our players have become used to the pressure. This is how you
develop players, by having them perform in games that matter."

Following Harrington's foul in the waning seconds of the first
half, Cuauhtemoc Blanco converted a penalty kick to give Chicago
a 1-0 lead.

Blanco's left-footer into the right side of the net beat
goalkeeper Kevin Hartman for the only score registered by the
Fire in three matches against the Wizards this year. It was
Blanco's third penalty kick conversion in as many attempts.
Blanco matched Chris Rolfe for the team lead in goals with six.

"He hit it hard, off the side of his foot," Hartman said.
"That's about as hard as anybody can hit it off the side of
their foot. I went the right way on it, but he hit it so hard
there wasn't much I could do. We still didn't get down about
it. It put us a little off tilt, but we knew we had 45 minutes
ahead of us and we would get an opportunity to get back into the
game."

Chicago (12-9-6) earned one point and remained third in the
Eastern Conference with 42 points.

The Wizards have played the Fire tough all season, posting two
ties and registering a 1-0 victory earlier this year. Chicago
has won just two of their last seven matches, going 2-4-1 during
that span.

"We continue to have very good position to control our destiny
towards the playoffs," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said. "We'll
just have to keep working and get ready for the very best team
in the MLS in Columbus."